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Monday, September 28, 2015

Review: Never Surrender by Rosie Miles

Police officer Maggie
Sinclair prides herself on her independence. She doesn't need anyone,
especially her ex-lover. Working undercover to expose a prostitution
ring, Maggie rescues two teenaged girls—but blows her cover in the
process. Now she's in deep, and the only person who can help her is the
last man she wants to call...

Detective Quinn Keller remembers
Maggie telling him Hell would freeze over before she needed him. He
offered her everything, and she rejected him. Now he has the opportunity
to show Maggie they're stronger as a team—even as their attraction
becomes increasingly hotter. But this passion won't just bring them
together or tear them apart...it could get them both killed.

Geez, I just don't know about this one! I hate that that statement is my opening line for my review but that is really how I feel about Never Surrender. When I first read the blurb for this one, I was intrigued. I thought that the whole thing sounded interesting and I was excited to crack it open. Well, not literally since I read it on my Kindle but you know what I mean.

I'll just cut to the chase and get down to business on this one. I'll be honest, it felt like it jumped around a little. We would be in the middle of a situation and then all of the sudden it would go to something else seemingly out of nowhere. The conversations also felt ... disconnected. I didn't get that connection with any of the characters on any kind of level ... I never felt sorry for them or excited or happy or even sad. That being said, I still enjoyed the premise. I wanted to know what was going to happen (even though it was a tad predictable) but I found myself skipping sentences and then paragraphs because I was just not that engaged.

Supposedly, this is a romance and some even say romantic suspense. But I didn't get the suspense and I really didn't get the romance part. The interactions between Maggie and Quinn felt forced and not from the character's standpoint, if that makes any sense. Let me see if I can explain ... the romance between those two just didn't feel ... normal. It felt forced and not because of their past. I know that there should have been passion between them because of the words that the author used but just reading those words isn't enough. There should almost be this palpable chemistry between characters, in my opinion. I should be jealous of the chick involved because she is with such a smokin' hot guy and he's so romantic or passionate or whatever. And I should want to make said smokin' hot dude my new book boyfriend. Instead, it was like witnessing two octopi (or octopuses if you prefer) making out ... sure there seems to be a lot going on because of all of the movement and rustling about but who is really for sure what is going on. That is exactly how the "romantic" moments in this book felt like.

Back to the suspense part ... about a third of the way into the book there was a big surprise and I was so excited. I thought that things were looking up and I would become more entranced with the characters and all of that. Unfortunately, I just totally plateaued out for me. I found myself in the same position I was in previously with the plot jumping nonsense and the very sad excuse for a romance.

I don't think that I'll be picking up another book by this author. I'm glad I gave it a shot because I would always wonder what it was like if I hadn't.